


Red and White, but Blue

by NoFlowzakBozak



Category: Hockey RPF, Olympics RPF
Genre: Hockey, M/M, NHL, Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews - Freeform, Sochi Olympics, Toronto Maple Leafs, Valentine's Day, also mentions:, because i'm a loser like that, valentine's day and pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 08:13:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoFlowzakBozak/pseuds/NoFlowzakBozak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bozie's stuck in Toronto while Phil's in Sochi. Tyler has a lot of reasons to be sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red and White, but Blue

**Author's Note:**

> I know there's going to be a storm of V-Day fics and honestly it's so not my thing, but the idea of Bozie getting all these Valentine tweets from fangirls while he's all Phil-less is too perfect to ignore.

"Hey, Boze, where's my hoodie gone? The USA one," Tyler heard the yell from Phil's room. He wandered in to see clothing strewn about the floor and a semi-packed suitcase on Phil's big bed.

"I burned it."

"Bozie, that's not even fucking funny." Phil fixed him with a glare that could have made flowers shrivel up and die. Tyler held his hands up in surrender, leaving to get the hoodie from his drawers where he had thrown it in self-disgust after, in a moment of weakness, he had stolen it and worn it. Just to see what he looked like wearing Phil's 81.

 

He hadn't been _sulking_ , when Phil called him, he just… he didn’t like that Phil had to leave so soon. He also didn’t like seeing Phil in Team USA stuff, because he was torn between rooting for his best friend (among other things), or for his country. Not that he'd ever tell anyone, no way. His style was more along the lines of ribbing and chirping.

"You sure you wanna wear that ugly thing?" Tyler joked as he threw the jumper at Phil. It landed perfectly over his head, covering his scowl. Phil pulled it down, over his head and puffed out his chest, showing off the USA logo.

"You're just jealous I'm going to Sochi." Ouch. Jealous wasn't exactly the right word. As Tyler thought about Phil being on the other side of the world, the feeling came closer to longing, or hurt. Phil must have seen something on  Tyler's face, as his face grew soft and concerned, and he reached out to rub Tyler's arm. "I'm sorry, that was kind of a low blow."

"No worries, man. I'm excited for you. Just, gonna miss you, is all," Tyler squeezed out, his voice cracking on the last bit. Phil pulled him in for a tight hug.

"Me too," Phil mumbled against Tyler's shoulder. Tyler rested his chin on Phil's head, pressing a soft kiss into his thin, 'blonde' hair. He liked being taller than Phil.

"Better finish packing?" Phil hummed a strange mix of a protest and reluctant agreement into Tyler's chest.

 

Tyler wasn't crying at the airport. He was seeing Phil off, and… he had no other explanation. He was crying. He hugged Phil hard, didn't ever want to let go. Phil wiped the moisture off his cheek with a gentle thumb. He heard someone clear their throat, turning around to see JVR standing beside them awkwardly, waiting for Phil. Tyler tried to compose himself, felt Phil's fingers lace between his own, before he let go to grab his stuff and get ready to leave with JVR. James held out his hand to Tyler, which Tyler grabbed, pulling JVR into a hug as well and patting him heartily on the back. "Congratulations, good luck and all the rest of it," he said quietly, letting James go. "And say hi and congrats to Mark for me, if you guys see him," Tyler added. James and Phil both waved, nodding, as they passed through the gate, sad yet excited smiles on both their faces. "Hopefully you guys get Silver, 'cause Canada's bringing home Gold!" Tyler yelled after them.

 

Tyler spent the rest of the day on the couch with Stella and a pint of ice cream. He was going to have to work that off tomorrow- couldn't afford to get unfit over the Olympic break, he'd return to see Naz in his place as top-line centre. That always motivated Tyler, the thought of losing his spot on a line with Phil. Stella crawled further onto his lap, nuzzling his belly and looking up at him with big, sad eyes.

"Take off, dog. This is my ice cream." Stella continued to look at him. "I know, I miss your daddy too. But _he_ doesn't let you up on the couch, does he?" Tyler teased, scratching Stella's soft head. They played favourites with this dog way too much. He pulled up the Sochi 2014 website on his phone, finding a schedule. USA was playing Slovakia tomorrow night. The next morning? Who knew? Tyler suddenly hated time zones.

 

He got up early the next day to go jogging with Stella. The run seemed longer without Phil. Tyler's phone buzzed in his pocket, a welcome distraction. It was Joffrey.

_wanna hang out today? go to the gym, watch phil and jvrs game?_

Tyler responded with a simple _sure._ He liked hanging out with Joffrey, the guy was magnetic and he pushed Tyler to go a little bit further when they worked out together. Loops would make an amazing C, he thought as he jogged Stella home.

 

His phone buzzed again at the gym, but he ignored it in favour of going one better than Joffrey with his reps. He made a mental note of checking it as soon as they got back to his place.

 

When they got inside, Joffrey took stock of the empty ice-cream tubs and general mess. "You're a pig, you know that? You look like you've just been broken up with. Missing your husband?" Joffrey's smile was teasing, but his eyes were serious. He was good at reading and understanding his teammates; if anyone could figure out what was going on between Tyler and Phil, it'd be Joffrey.

"Phil's not my- yeah, I'm a little jealous." Tyler thought it'd be better to try and distract Joffrey with a slightly unrelated answer than flat-out deny it.

"That's not the answer to the question I asked. We're all jealous."

Damn Joffrey and his persistence. He was too clever for his own good, he wasn't going to be steered off course. "Yeah. I miss Phil," Tyler responded, a little too snappishly. "And, I'd appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone. That is, if you've worked it out," he babbled, realising he probably made zero sense.

"Worked what out?" Joffrey pressed, looking at Tyler like he might be crazy. "I won’t tell anyone that you miss Phil, if that's what you want, but I miss him too. We all do, so it's really no big."

"If you don’t know, then it doesn’t matter," Tyler mumbled.

"Nah, Bozie. Now, I'm curious."

"Phil...I, we. He might not want me to tell you," Tyler stammered, trying to string a sentence together under the intensity of Joffrey's calculating gaze.

"We can keep it between us."

"Fine. But if you tell, I swear…" Tyler threatened. Joffrey crossed his heart. "Phil and I...We're dating. Yep."

This ridiculously excited look dawned across Joffrey's face. "I so called it! When we were on a line together, I knew it!" Tyler attempted to ignore his ridiculous prancing, but that lasted for about as long as it took for Joffrey to grab him and spin him around, singing, "Bozie's getting laid! Bozie's getting- Oh God, why would you put that in my head…"

When Tyler's feet were both solidly on the floor again, he was pink with embarrassment. He fixed his hair, attempting to maintain some of his dignity, and stumbled off to his room to check his text from before. It was from Phil.

_Landed in Sochi! In the USA house. Patrick Kane's fucking loud. Playing Slovakia this afternoon!_

He smiled at Phil's text grammar, responding with _sounds like fun, kaner brings the party. good luck against slovakia, not that u need it. save up all ur good luck for when u play canada._ He felt a weight at the end of his bed, and his phone was snatched out of his hand before he could react properly, leaving him doing grabby hands at Joffrey. He wondered why he had thought that it was a good idea to let Joffrey stay over.

"Texting Phil? Tell JVR he owes me a looott o' money."

"Why...what? No way. Did you have _bets_ on Phil and I?"

Joffrey didn't look at Tyler, preferring to look down at the phone in his hands, fiddling with something. "No."

"What are you- gimme that," Tyler growled, snatching the phone from Joffrey. He had added _< 3<3<3 joffrey's visiting and he rocks hes a better roommate than u_ to the end of the text and sent it. The phone buzzed again. Phil.

_How sweet I miss you too buddy. *sarcasm* Joffrey steal your phone? Mark says hi. Smilier than ever. He also said you never come visit him in Sasky anymore, you should come over so you can school it up together and he can carve you. Or something. I don't know how to speak snowboarder. USA's gonna win gold and you know it._

Tyler laughed out loud, responding with a _sure sure, ill watch ur game anyways_ and _id school him in hockey anyday. tell him mothers better than red bull and he knows it_

 

It was the next morning when Tyler realised that this promise would lead to him being woken up by Joffrey, who had stayed in Tyler's room for the night while Tyler slept in Phil's bed (not that different from their usual arrangement), at 7:00 in the morning to 'make coffee because Phil's playing soon and so's Jimmy and you need to be awaaaaake." 7:30 am. What a stupid fucking time for a hockey game. Couldn’t the IOC or the IIHF or whoever was in charge think about the rest of the world when they scheduled these games?

 

Tyler wanted to cry, watching Phil lighting it up out there for his country. He was so proud, but he missed Phil. Joffrey must have noticed, as he reached across the couch to put a hand on Tyler's knee and gently squeeze, not saying anything but understanding nonetheless. Tyler kept up a constant Twitter play-by-play during the game, texting Phil after each shift even knowing that he wouldn’t get them until after the game. The room erupted after a beauty JVR pass led to a goal from Phil, with Joffrey hugging Tyler and Tyler screaming. He didn’t know two men could make so much noise. In his excitement, he tweeted "What a goal from my homeboys @PKessel81 @JVReemer21 #beauties #torontorepresent" following it up with a text to Phil saying _fucking sick babe. miss having my name next to your goals._

 

When Tyler realised what day it was, he decided he wasn't going to get out of bed until the fifteenth.

He, Tyler Bozak, charmer extraordinaire (he knew he was attractive, he wasn't going to deny it), was alone on Valentine's Day.

For entertainment, he tweeted it just to see the response.

"Alone on this, the saddest of days #happyvday #notforme"

The response was almost immediate: a flurry of _be my Valentine_ 's and _I'm lonely too_ 's and _aww I'll cuddle you_ 's and the occasional _wanna puck_? Plus one or two stick handling innuendos. How fucking creative. He let Stella up on the bed; he was determined to get at least some love today. She licked his face, curling up on his chest. Phil would kill him when he saw all the dog fur everywhere. Tyler didn’t mind, at least it'd mean Phil was home. As if reading his thoughts, his phone rang, the Katy Perry ringtone that Phil had set for himself in an attempt to embarrass Tyler. It hadn’t worked, because every time Tyler was around people to embarrass himself in front of, Phil was there with him so there was no reason to call.

"Hey," Tyler said, voice thick with emotion at hearing Phil again.

"Hey, what’s up? What's the time?" Phil asked on the other end. Stella barked at him. "Bozie, is that Stella? If she's on the furniture with you…"

"So many questions," Tyler joked. "Nothing interesting's happening here, it should be me asking you for updates."

"Well, I play hockey by day and get talked at by JVR all night. Although, Kaner let Toews into the USA house today. That was entertaining, I've never seen so much hostility. Especially not against Jonathan Toews."

Tyler let out a burst of laughter. "You know what day it is?"

"Yeah, I saw that tweet. You do it deliberately, don’t you? For the response."

"Of course."

"Well, yeah sorry I'm not there-"

"You're not Canadian, stop apologising for things you can’t control."

"-but, hey. Why do we need one particular day to be, y'know, couple-y? We can do that whenever."

"Yeah, okay. I guess. When you get home."

"And, Boze? I miss being on the end of your passes."

Tyler smiled softly, sincerely. "Yeah. Well, bye. Good luck for the rest of the Games."

"Thanks, you too. I mean-what?" Phil laughed with Tyler. "Bye."

Tyler dropped his phone onto the bed, sighing. "I thought he loved Valentine's Day. We all know he's a hopeless romantic," he wondered to Stella, scratching behind her ears. She didn't offer him an answer. Not that he had expected one. He shrugged and left it, there wasn't much he could do about it.

 

Tyler's doorbell rang, surprising him when he opened it to see a delivery man. He hadn't ordered anything. The guy held out the package, asking for a signature. Tyler obliged, taking the parcel and signing, then took it inside and closed the door behind him. He opened the top to see a little note in Phil's small, surprisingly neat handwriting.

_Hey, I know you're a hopeless romantic who loves Valentine's so I got you this. Don't ask how I managed to pull this off, I just did. I don't know if I timed it right… I'm not sure when this will get to you.  Even if you don't like it (I don’t see why you wouldn't) just appreciate the thought. LYLT :)_

_Phil_

And underneath, in different handwriting, an obvious hurried scrawl:

_And James xoxo_

Under the letter, inside the wrappings, was a large bottle of Russian Vodka. Smiling, Tyler pulled out his phone, decided against it, grabbed a pen and paper, and began to write.

_Phil,_

_I'm not the hopeless romantic, you are. Might keep this for Canada's Gold medal celebrations. Or I could save it for when you get home, we'll celebrate whatever you guys have won (because you guys rock this year and if you don’t medal then I'll go for Team USA). Tell Jimmy (that's what Loops calls him, tell him I told you and I'll kill you) that if he loves me he needs to get me his own presents and not tag onto other people's, and if he has something to say, to come out and say it ;)_

_It arrived the day after V-Day, I started to worry you didn't love me *pouty face.* This is the second best present ever though, you know what the first one would be ;) we'll talk more when you get home *imagine my seductive voice*_

_< 3 5ever,_

_Tylerrr_


End file.
